Love Wrexham Magazine - Issue 3 - September 2019

Wrexhamites
Social Work Student’s Placement Success Recognised
At Houses Of Parliament Awards
A placement with a prisoner
support charity fitted so well for
a Wrexham Glyndwr University
Social Work student that he not
only secured a job at its end, but
ended up with a national award
as well.
Jamie Dixon from Penyffordd
initially embarked on the placement
with the Prison Advice Care Trust
(Pact) as part of his studies on the
Glyndwr’s BA (Hons) Social Work
course. During his 80-day
placement, he worked with the
Trust and prisoners at HMP
Berwyn, preparing the prisoners for
the day they were released and
helping them to return to life
outside the prison.
Jamie said: “I would help them sort
out housing, benefits, food, liaison
with council departments and
things like that. The charity actually
works out of the probation office in
Wrexham and a lot of my time was
spent in there.”
Following his placement, Jamie
was contacted by the charity and
told he was one of a select group
of people from up and down the
UK who had been selected to
receive a volunteering award.
Jamie and the other volunteers
were asked to come to a special
34
presentation at the House of
Lords as part of an event
celebrating Pact’s 120 th year
helping people.
He said: “After I heard I had been
put forward for the award, my dad
and I were invited
down to the Houses
of Parliament where
the ceremony was
being held. It was
very interesting
actually – we went
down there the day
Theresa May
resigned and that
was fascinating to watch in the
House of Commons. Seeing those
processes in Parliament is not
something everyone gets to see.
We were each given an award by
David Gauke – the then Justice
Secretary – and it was great to be
recognised for the work I had done.
Pact is a big charity and out of all
the people in the country they
could have given an award to, they
picked just 13 of us.”
Jamie is now working part time
while he completes his studies at
Glyndwr and is looking forward to
applying his degree once he
graduates and finds a career in
social work.
He added: “After the placement
and the awards, I actually ended
up getting a job with Pact – once
again, working with prisoners from
HMP Berwyn. That’s the kind of
arena I’d like to work in once I
graduate. My mum is a social
worker and coming to Glyndwr to
study to become one too seemed
the next logical step for me.”
Senior lecturer in Social Work at
Wrexham Glyndwr University, Liz
Lefroy, said: “Each Social Work
student at Glyndwr is expected to
apply the skills they learn with us
on a placement. Jamie is a
conscientious student who
performed exceptionally well on his
second year placement. He was
given a challenging opportunity
and he rose to that challenge.
We work hard with our partner
organisations: Wrexham, Flintshire
and Denbighshire Councils, to
provide students with placements
which enable them to grow into the
social work role and this turned out
to be a particularly good fit.”
To find out more about Wrexham
Glyndwr University’s BA (Hons) in
Social Work, visit https://
www.glyndwr.ac.uk/en/
undergraduatecourses/socialwork
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